Antidepressant use during pregnancy: the neurodevelopemental effects on the offspringDepression during pregnancy can negatively affect the fetus. Every year 2-10% of newborn babies are born by depressed mothers who took antidepressant (AD) medication during pregnancy. This project aims to investigate the molecular and behavioral alterations in offspring due to antenatal depression, AD treatment, or the combination thereof.Although antidepressant (AD) medication during pregnancy is often used, the developmental effects of AD exposure on the fetus are poorly documented. This project aims to investigate the molecular and behavioral alterations in offspring due to antenatal depression, AD treatment, or the combination thereof. In addition, it aims to study the influences of multiple life-events during adulthood in the offspring. The main shortcoming of human studies is that effects of depression and medication intake cannot be separated, since the only mothers who take antidepressants are in fact depressed. Therefore this study uses an advanced rat model that can discern the effects of prenatal depression and AD exposure to neurodevelopmental alterations in the offspring, and investigates the potential interaction between them. This project is the first to use a seminatural environmental setup in which rats live in groups and can freely express their full repertoire of behavior, thereby mimicking the reallife environment of children including a social context. Ultimately, the results of this project will be beneficial for human health by opening up new strategies for biomedical research and therapeutic applications.
Last year, the first experiment in this study has been performed in which the effects of AD treatment during pregnancy in healthy mothers on their offspring was investigated. The offspring were tested in the seminatural environment at an adult age, where they were exposed to a stressful life-event. At baseline, it was found that AD exposed females are less socially active than the control females. However, both male and female AD exposed offspring rest more in groups compared to the controls who rest more solitary. This suggests that although there is an effect on active participation in social behavior, the offspring still prefer a social context when in rest.
When the rats were exposed to a stressful life-event, these preferences in behavior changed. All AD exposed offspring started to withdraw from the social context and rested more solitary, while the control rats showed the opposite response by resting more in groups. This suggests that perinatal AD exposure makes the offspring more vulnerable to stressful situations resulting in a decrease in social behavior.
Another important finding was that AD exposed male rats responded differently to the stressful life-event than controls: they groomed themselves extensively more. Selfgrooming has been linked to obsessive stress behavior, indicating that the AD exposed males cope differently with stress.
These findings were presented with posters on two international conferences (Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology and Society for Neuroscience). In addition, the manuscript is currently in preparation, and is expected to be submitted in the beginning of 2018.
Currently, we are analyzing more data from this experiment. For example, we investigate the effects of perinatal AD exposure on sexual behavior and consolation behavior (as indicator for autistic-related behaviors). As soon as the animal facility re-opens, we plan to start our second experiment.

2016

Antidepressant use during pregnancy: the neurodevelopemental effects on the offspringDepression during pregnancy can negatively affect the fetus. Every year 2-10% of newborn babies are born by depressed mothers who took antidepressant (AD) medication during pregnancy. This project aims to investigate the molecular and behavioral alterations in offspring due to antenatal depression, AD treatment, or the combination thereof.Depression during pregnancy can negatively affect the fetus. Every year 2-10% of newborn babies are born by depressed mothers who took antidepressant (AD) medication during pregnancy. Unfortunately, the developmental effects of AD exposure on the fetus are poorly documented. This project aims to investigate the molecular and behavioral alterations in offspring due to antenatal depression, AD treatment, or the combination thereof. In addition, it aims to study the influences of multiple life-events during adulthood in the offspring.
The main shortcoming of human studies is that effects of depression and medication intake cannot be separated, since the only mothers who take antidepressants are in fact depressed. Therefore this study uses an advanced rat model that can discern the effects of prenatal depression and AD exposure to neurodevelopmental alterations in the offspring, and investigates the potential interaction between them.
This project is the first to use a seminatural environmental setup in which rats live in groups and can freely express their full repertoire of behavior, thereby mimicking the reallife environment of children. The molecular and behavioral alterations in the offspring are investigated in a social context, in which the consequences of environmental influences and life-events can be determined.
Ultimately, the results of this project will be beneficial for human health by opening up new strategies for biomedical research and therapeutic applications.
Last year, the first experiment in this study has been performed in which the effects of AD treatment during pregnancy in healthy mothers on their offspring was investigated. Currently, we are working on the analysis of the data, before continuing with the next phase of the project.